September 1st
by zon.ko.hogsmeade
Summary: A story about Luna Lovegood's first day at Hogwarts, from when she first sets foot on Platform 9&3/4, to when she finally settles into her dormitory in the Ravenclaw tower. Set during Harry's second year.
1. The Hogwarts Express

**September 1****st**

**The Hogwarts Express**

A girl stumbled through the brick wall onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters, coming to a sudden stop and lurching over the handle of the metal trolley, which was carrying a large battered trunk and several parcels wrapped in brown paper. Regaining her balance, she looked up and gasped. Right there, across the platform, was a gleaming scarlet steam engine. _The Hogwarts Express._

Soon, more people were appearing from King's Cross Station through the magical entryway behind the girl and almost bumping into her, as she was still standing only a few metres away, her eyes transfixed on the train. Her eyes, a silvery grey, were staring, but not really _looking_. They seemed to twinkle, as she stood there, unmoving, as people rushed this way and that all around her.

The platform was full of people swarming around in frenzy like bees in a hive – parents hurrying their children towards the train, ushering them onboard frantically.

Given a quick glance, it might have seemed like an ordinary station, but looking more closely, all of these people were obviously _not_ ordinary. They were wizards, blending in with the Muggles in London. Or trying.

Their clothes, although being ordinary Muggle clothing, of course, were not what real Muggles would ever wear. Not without getting some funny looks, anyway. For some magic folk, what they were wearing was simply outdated or mismatched. But other people's fashion problems were a lot more serious...

Atop one particular woman's head was a hat that appeared to have a stuffed vulture attached to the front, while the handbag she clutched was shiny and bright red. She held it with one hand and used the other to wave goodbye to a round-faced boy boarding the train. One family seemed to be dressed all in black. At the bottom of the station, one child had just arrived with his parents, who were dressed very oddly indeed – the father was wearing a smart baby-blue blouse with a ruffled front, teamed with a pair of leather sandals that had feathers and beads fastened to them, and his wife wore a simple polo shirt, but with a purple-yellow-blue-red-and-every-other-colour-of-t he-rainbow necktie bound tightly under the buttoned up collar of her top.

If you listened to what they were saying, you could hear them talking about strange things, things that didn't make any sense to anyone who wasn't a wizard. One man was wishing his son good luck in his "Qudditch" matches, and two girls were chatting about what they had purchased recently from "Diagon Alley". A woman was telling her red-headed twins, "do _not_ be bewitching any more snowballs to fly at _any_ teachers' heads this year!" before ushering them quickly onto the train and saying goodbye to her other two children, who also had bright red hair.

This girl was no exception to the strange assortment of people here. She might have looked like a normal young girl, but if you looked closer - at her tiny earrings shaped like radishes hiding amid her dirty-blonde hair, at her nails spotted and striped with vibrant polish or realized she was wearing a pair of jeans half-covered in patches of floral fabric, which she had apparently sown on herself, you would see she was just as peculiar as everyone else.

She was still standing there, in the way, dazed, a few minutes later when a man appeared behind her and stood by her side, a man who looked as distant and dreamy as she did. He stood there for a moment, almost mirroring her exactly.

"Luna!" the man exclaimed suddenly, as if remembering something. "The time..." He raised his arm and stared at his bare wrist blankly for a moment, then frowned. "Oh…" he muttered. Slowly, he looked about, at the train, the bustling crowds, and then, turning completely around, he bent his neck back severely to look up at a clock attached high up on the bricks above them.

The girl twisted her head around to see what he was looking at.

"Oh my!" Luna's father exclaimed, jumping back around to face the train. "11:58! Quick, you need to board…" He took hold of the trolley his daughter had been gripping and hurried it up the platform, Luna rushing after him. They stopped at the first door. "Right, my dear, you've got everything, yes?"

"I think so…" Luna said, in a high, dreamy voice, turning to her father and nodding slowly.

"Don't be nervous, my dear… you'll be fine. I'll see you soon in the holidays, yes?" Luna's father picked up her trunk with a grunt and shoved it onto the train while she gathered her parcels from the trolley and put them under her arm, before jumping onboard.

"Okay." Luna smiled and reached down to kiss her father goodbye.

Suddenly there was a loud blow of a whistle, and in a matter of seconds, Luna was alone on the train, turning from the closing doors and wandering down the corridor, dragging her trunk behind her.


	2. These People Know Harry Potter

**These People Know Harry Potter? **

"Would you mind if I came in? I can't find an empty compartment." Luna said, waiting for a reply while standing in the doorway of the compartment, giving a small smile at the people there.

"Of course not," said a red-haired girl sitting on the right, beside the window. "Come on in."

Luna edged in, yanking her trunk through the door and shoving into the luggage rack behind the seat opposite the girl who had spoken, and placed her parcels beside her as she sat down.

Now she was seated, she looked around at the other people present, her big, grey eyes moving from one to another. The red-haired girl opposite looked about the same age as Luna, and her pale nose was sprinkled in freckles, and beside her sat another girl who looked slightly older than her friend. She had big, bushy brown hair and brown eyes. Glancing to her right, Luna saw the person she was sitting next to was a boy, a chubby, round-faced boy, with blond hair, flushed cheeks and slightly bucked teeth. He looked back at her nervously.

"I'm Hermione Granger," the girl with the bushy hair said, smiling at Luna. "This is Ginny Weasley" -she gestured at the other girl- "and Neville Longbottom." She nodded at the boy.

"I'm Luna," replied Luna in her dreamy voice. They looked at her for a moment. "Luna Lovegood."

They sat in awkward silence for a moment, Luna's eyes examining each new person in turn. Ginny opened her mouth like she was about to say something when suddenly the door slid open and two boys stuck their heads in. They were twins and Luna was thinking about how remarkably like Ginny they looked, all freckles and fiery hair, until she realised that they must be her brothers.

"Ginny, have you seen Ron?" one of the boys asked.

"We can't find him," the other added.

"Or Harry."

Ginny shook her head. She had blushed bright red, Luna noticed, and the tips of her ears had gone pink too.

"Hermione?"

"No, why? Didn't they get on the train with you?" Hermione said, looking concerned, her eyebrows drawing together as she frowned.

"Yes."

"That's why we're asking you whether they're on the train."

"Because they got on with us."

"Oh, shut up," Hermione said crossly, some bossiness in her voice emerging. She paused, deep in thought. "I _did _wonder why I hadn't seen them earlier… So… are you saying that they're noton the train? At all?"

"How could they not be on the train?" Ginny asked, looking from Hermione, to one boy, to the other. "They were at King's Cross with us. They followed us through the barrier onto the platform."

"Well, we've been all the way up and down the train."

"Twice."

"Oh, God…" Hermione muttered. "Where _are_ they? What if they're _not _on the train?"

"I'm sure they'll be here somewhere," said Ginny, trying to comfort Hermione, who was getting agitated.

"Think what you want," one of the redheaded boys said.

"They're not here," the other one added as they ducked out of the door. It slid shut.

Luna sat and thought to herself for a moment. "Who are they looking for again?" she asked, looking at the three of them, even Neville, who was still sitting in the corner, silent.

"Ron - Ginny, Fred and George's brother - and Harry," Hermione told her.

"Harry Potter," added Ginny quickly, turning slightly pink again as she said it.

"Harry Potter? You know _Harry Potter_?" Luna asked, absolutely stunned.


	3. Crumple-Horned Snorkacks in Sweden

**Crumple-Horned Snorkacks in Sweden**

"Why are you reading your magazine upside down?"

Luna lowered her magazine so you could just see her eyes over the top, and then focused them on Ginny Weasley. Her silver eyes and faint blonde eyebrows gave her a permanently surprised expression.

"Because that's how you're supposed to read this part," Luna said.

"Oh." Ginny looked away awkwardly.

Hermione lifted her head from the book she'd had had her nose in to see what Luna was reading. She frowned disapprovingly, and, leaning over to Ginny, whispered, "Isn't the Quibbler just a load of rubbish?"

Ginny gave a small laugh, making both Luna and Neville look up. Hermione shifted back upright in her seat, a guilty look on her face. When their attention had faded, Ginny murmured, "You could say that." Hermione raised her eyebrows questioningly. Ginny giggled and put a hand over her mouth, looking at the other two in the car. "Fine. Yes, it is."

Hermione was about to say something back when suddenly Neville jumped up and started patting the pockets of his sweater and trousers frantically, before spinning around and shuffling his things around on the seat, peering underneath them.

"Neville, what on earth are you doing?" said Hermione incredulously.

"He appears to be looking for something," Luna said thoughtfully, turning her intense gaze on Hermione.

"I can see that," Hermione snapped, flashing Luna a dark look. "Whatis it you're looking for, Neville?" She put heavy emphasis on Neville's name.

Neville threw all of his belongings back onto the seat, sighed deeply, and then slowly turned back around to face everyone, looking troubled. "It's Trevor. I can't find him."

"Oh, God. Not again. Must you always lose things?" Hermione said. Neville just stood there, utterly disappointed in himself. "For God's sake, come on. There's no point standing around like that. Let's go and look for him." Hermione shut her book with a loud _snap_, stood up moodily, and stomped out of the compartment, Neville trailing behind her. Ginny watched them go.

"Does he lose things often?" Luna wondered. She said it almost like she didn't mean to direct her question at Ginny, as though she hear thoughts had spilled form her mind by accident.

"From what I hear. I don't really know him that well," said Ginny. "He and my brother, Ron, are friends. I'm a first year."

"So am I," Luna said, giving Ginny a tentative smile.

"I'm a little afraid of getting sorted," Ginny admitted, almost guiltily. "I keep thinking… what if I'm not put in Gryffindor like all of my brothers?"

"You probably will be. Sorting tends to work like that," Luna said in her high, dreamy voice. "I'm hoping for Ravenclaw. Like my parents." Luna leaned towards Ginny, and whispered, "Have you heard the news about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks?"

"Err… Crumple-what?" Ginny stuttered.

"Crumple-Horned Snorkacks," Luna repeated plainly, like everyone should know what she's talking about. Her voice lowered again as she said, "My father heard there's been sightings in Sweden."

Ginny paused for a moment, as though she didn't know what to say. "Oh, really? Is that… good news?"

"Well, it's the first real information we've had in a while," said Luna as she leaned back again.

"Oh?" Ginny raised her eyebrows.

Luna nodded enthusiastically. "The Quibbler's been selling a lot of copies lately." She paused and took a dramatic breath. "I mean, since the article about the Wrackspurts, people can't get enough!"

Just then Hermione came back into the compartment, closely followed by a much happier Neville, who was gripping a small toad in both of his hands. Hermione launched into a story about toads and Slytherins, and after a couple of minutes, Luna lost interest and let her eyes wander to the window, where they stared out at the passing countryside for a long time after Hermione had finished her tale.


End file.
